Psalms for the City: Original poetry inspired by the places we call home

Product Information

A tougher job than that sounds, to judge by what I once witnessed at the Trafalgar Square branch of Waterstones.

This book is a delight. Keeping quirky and cheerful, it suggests serious things without taking itself too seriously. It could even make the most complacent sceptic laugh and think again.' - Richard Harries (Lord Harries of Pentregarth) Best of all, I wrote a book – about finding peace in the places we call home – and I illustrated it too: 50 full-colour drawings, plus the cover – showing the view from my hospital window. Can you imagine how good that feels? I wanted to make art for a living. Forty years passed. And now I do. It’s for a slot called “A Moment That Changed Me”. Here (below) is the copy I filed. Naturally, the piece as it eventually appears – if it eventually appears!– may be quite different. But I thought you might like to see the words just as I sent them.Which is key to improvisation, the willingness to embrace the possibility of failure. You don’t love failure, you love the possibility of failure, because if there’s no possibility of failure, is it really worth doing anything at all?

Now, now in a moment I’m going to ask you to do something. I’m going to ask you to turn to that neighbour and say something awesomely original The therapist said: “Imagine yourself, aged about four or five. Imagine that little boy coming into the room now… What would you say to him?” After facing two deaths in two months, and two loved ones having major health scares, Mr Flintoff said he “lost confidence” in himself to cope with his “savagely cruel, self critical thoughts”. Mr Flintoff, a former journalist, had never seen drawing as anything more than a hobby, but his psychiatrist recommended he keep drawing as a way to express his thoughts. What a beautiful collection. Thoughtful profound, funny, moving. The religious theme is so perfectly handled. And I adored the art - the whole thing is so charming.’ - Anthony McGowan, authorBlimey, what a reputation to live up to – “a master of improvisation”! That doesn’t allow me any room to fail does it?